There Are Way Too Many Indie RPGs

Today a reader sent me an email about this new contest for RPG Maker games, and I wish I had time to play them all. I mean, sure, RPG Maker games aren't always... polished, but there are some good ones out there, like Exit Fate and Barkley's Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden. They're almost always free, and if you do enough digging, you can find some really cool indie RPGs out there.

So check out the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest. It's sponsored in part by Humble Bundle, and it's already full of tons and tons of indie RPGs that you can download and play right now.

Also, thanks to the power of crowdsourcing, the games are all full of comments from people who have played and can offer feedback on each one.

Thanks Danny!

Comments

Exit Fate was good fun, I reckon the best Suikoden 2 clone I have played.
I played it over a week when I was stuck at RPA in Sydney for a week a couple of years back and all I had with me was a crappy laptop.

My main problem with most RPGMaker games is simply that they control and appear way too similar to each other. Limitations of engine, games are usually free, usually limited tile textures etc I all realise, it's just something I notice that generally turns me off them.
Too much de ja vu "Haven't I played this game before? Or at least visited this area?"
Like mentioned, the big thing is digging through all the coal to find the diamonds.

I think it's more a case of when you have something that enables easy game creation, you're going to get a lot of people who don't bother working with the more complex parts and use the common, easy to use resources, resulting in a flood of games that look alike. There's actually a lot you can do to implement complex battle systems and more unique looking tilesets and characters (To The Moon is an RPG Maker game), it's just that it takes more than the usual drag and drop ease of creation so only the dedicated people spend time on it. There are also probably a lot of scripts out there that people use without modifying to fit their needs, again, creating a homogenised set of games.

Yes that's true, I have seen ump-teen-thousand threads about 'wear can i getz a final fantaze se7vn batle scirpt?' from back when I used to muck around with rpgmaker, that was 10-12 years ago now. RPGMaker 2003 I think it was, maybe XP.
Actually speaking of FF7 there was one... hmm.. Dark Cloud? nah thats not it, that was a ps2 series... something to do with Cloud anyway, as I recall it was an RPGMaker game set after the end of ff7, can't remember it's name.
edit; just did a search and I think it was actually called The Dark Cloud (http://megagames.com/freeware/final-fantasy-viithe-dark-cloud).

There was this story about an Aussie dude trying to remake the whole of FF7 in RPGMaker too (http://kotaku.com/one-fans-quest-to-remake-final-fantasy-vii-in-2d-898921460). I wonder how that projects going?

There's some good games made using it for sure, but yeah like you say, given the ease to just use the small set of resources that come with the program, most just use those, hence the 'same same' feel of a lot of them.

That's how you can tell which ones have really had some good lovin' given to them, the ones with lots of custom made stuff that you haven't seen before in an rpgmaker game. Having played around with this program in the past, I certainly appreciate all the time and effort that goes into creating any RPGMaker game, it's just that the ones that are lovingly crafted stand out so much more because you notice what is different to all the other rpgmaker games, as opposed to what is all the same

Man, I grew up on RPGMaker. I first got into it around 2002, if I remember correctly. I started many games. Only ever finished one, but it was extremely fun to play around and build plotlines, figure out stats and make pixel art.
I've played many RPG Maker games over the years too. Sure, they all handle mostly the same, and the graphics have very little variation, but the reason I like RPGs is for the story. And damned if some of those games didn't kick ass in that department.

hey Natalie i like your style. still like rpg maker games. there is one on facebook called Chrono Legends mcmxcix. We would love your assistance. Just developing this new indie one and it has a impact. I love rpg maker vx ace games. just really hard to find some rare ones with unique content.

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